


Blood and Sails

by meridian_rose (meridianrose)



Category: Black Sails
Genre: Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Canonical Character Death, F/M, Gen, Mentions of Violence, Past Sexual Abuse, Vampire!Silver, other characters appear, vampire!Abigial, written for halloween
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-31
Updated: 2017-10-31
Packaged: 2019-01-27 11:25:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12580788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meridianrose/pseuds/meridian_rose
Summary: It was one thing to walk as a predator through dark alleys, unafraid. It was another to own land and command respect.In which vampire!Silver is still manipulative and hungry for gold, but is also vengeful, hungry for blood, and very hard to kill. And he is not the only one.





	Blood and Sails

“What happened to him?” Gates asked, gesturing to the body.

The young man held up his hands in a gesture of surrender. “Some sort of disease,” he said.

Gates took a step back. This corpse below decks was the second he’d found, pale, eyes wide open, killed not by their boarding party but something else.

“It doesn’t seem contagious,” the man added helpfully. “All the men who died had been to a particular tavern on our last stop. I stayed onboard. But then I never get sick.”

“Is that so?” Gates was regretting stepping on board this ship.

“Yes. My name is John Silver, and I happen to be a very good cook,” the man said, with a broad and somewhat disconcerting smile.

*

“I see an opportunity, I take it.” Silver shrugged his shirt back on.

“Hmmm.” Max tipped her head. “You are...not like other men.”

He glanced over at her, eyes narrowed. “Is that so?”

It was as if a chill had entered the room. Max fancied her heart beat faster and the charming rogue she and the girls had entertained was replaced by someone, or something, else. Those bright blue eyes fixed on her as if she were prey.

“You can keep your eyes on the prize,” Max said, drawing his attention back to the container.

He smiled. The danger was over

“That’s right,” he said. “I think we can be partners.”

*

“Sorry,” Silver said, not sorry at all as he dropped Dufresne’s body over the cliffs. He licked the blood from his lips. Something about the man had bothered him since the moment he’d laid eyes on him and tonight, well, Silver had been hungry and Dusfresene had been nearby and made that terrible remark about fuck tents. Silver had already been angry and that was the last straw. Just because one was a vampire, did not mean things always went your way. This did not make it any less annoying when things went badly for you or your partners.

It was true that being turned had given him strengths and abilities that made life easier. Yet obtaining the gold would give him a different kind of power, the sort that those who lived solely in the daylight would respect. It was one thing to walk as a predator through dark alleys, unafraid. It was another to own land and command respect.

Until then, he would use the unnatural gifts to his advantage.

*

One by one, Vane’s men turned up dead, pale and with scratches on the face and neck as if the brief disease had driven them to mutilate themselves.

The island began to whisper of plague.

Vane confronted the whore; she had passed this disease, he was sure of it. Each dead man had recently visited her in the tent.

“I ain’t got it,” Anne snarled at him, “so she don’t either.”

“You’re not fucking her,” Vane retorted.

Anne glared at him, one eyebrow raised. Jack, lurking behind Vane, a handkerchief pressed against his face, made a muffled plea for everyone to stay calm and not let panic cause more deaths.

Vane snatched the handkerchief from Jack and stormed out into the night. He balled up the cloth and tossed it behind him as he reached the beach. He walked along the sand, stopping in a secluded cove to light a cigarette.

“I left you until last,” a voice called.

Vane stared around him but saw no-one. “Who’s there?” He tossed away the cigarillo, pulled out his knife.

“You didn’t rape her.” The voice was to one side of him. Vane swirled but the air was empty.

The voice came from the other side now. “But you caused her to be raped. You share the guilt of every man I have killed for their crime.”

Vane turned in place, sweating. Where the hell was this man? What was his deal with the whore?

“Would you have given me to your men to be raped? Or is it only women you punish thus?”

“Show yourself you coward,” Vane bellowed.

There was an arm around his throat, gripping him with the strength of five men, and Vane was dragged down to his knees, struggling for breath.

“How many women have you raped, Charles? Punched? Kicked? Spat on? They say you were a slave and yet instead of learning compassion from that you behave like a cruel master handing out unforgivable punishments. The moon is full tonight,” Silver breathed against Vane’s ear. “My powers are at their peak. And your despicable behaviour ends now.”

The sharp teeth in his neck were the last thing Vane knew.

*

“I am sorry I could not intervene to prevent what was done to you. But I hope you can take some comfort in knowing that he will never hurt you again.”

Max sat on the bed, staring at the necklace he'd dropped into her hand; Vane’s pendant. “You are a monster.”

“He was a monster. I am merely more than human.” Silver tipped his head, eyes almost glowing in the dark. “I have killed to survive, yes. I have killed for vengeance. But I do not kill for mere sport as some men. I do not take pleasure in torture. I do not rape.”

She swallowed. “What do you want with me?”

Silver shrugged. “We are still partners, are we not? I want the gold. You want the gold. Flint and newly appointed Captain Jack Rackham and everyone else wants the gold.”

She frowned. “You’re not going to kill me?”

“Why would I punish those who hurt you if I wanted to see you dead?” Silver moved to sit next to her. “Truly, I have no desire to see harm come to you.”

She reached out one trembling hand to cup his cheek. “Show me again,” she whispered. He complied; her thumb caressed one elongated canine sending a shiver through them both.

Max pressed the necklace into his hand. “If I am found with this, I will be hanged. You must dispose of it, _mon cher_.”

“As you wish,” he agreed, and was gone as suddenly as he’d arrived in her room.

*

“What happened in there?” Billy dragged Silver to Flint's cabin. The sight of six or seven dead men in that room was not one he’d soon forget. They'd taken Silver away to torture him; Billy had expected blood when they'd got the door open, just not quite so much of it, nor any corpses.

“They turned on each other.”

It seemed unlikely, though Billy knew how Silver could manipulate people and bend them to his will. Right now he had other concerns.

“How much of this blood is yours?” Billy positioned Silver on the bench by the window, horrified at the dark patch spreading over the brown shirt.

“Lock the door,” Silver begged. “I don’t feel safe.”

Billy did as he was told before returning to the wounded man. He'd brought Silver to the cabin at Silver's insistence despite his first thought being to take him to the ship's doctor.

“It was no easy thing to kill so many,” Silver whispered, Billy having to lean over him to hear the words. “The sun is still lingering above the horizon. And I have lost rather a lot of blood. I’m sorry, Billy.”

“Sssh,” Billy soothed, for this sounded like a deathbed confession. “You’ll be all right. Let me find Howell.”

Silver clasped Billy’s head, his palms on Billy’s cheeks. “Oh, Billy. No.”

*

It was fully dark when Billy awake. One hand went to his neck, two wounds healing but palpable beneath his fingertips. He scrambled to his feet, dizzy and confused.

Silver was sat at the captain’s desk as if it were his rightful place, calm and proud. The moonlight gave him an eerie look, eyes bright in the gloom.

“What are you?” Billy asked, reaching for a weapon he’d been relieved of while unconscious.

“Vampire is what we’re commonly called,” Silver said. “I do apologise, Billy I was rather in need of sustenance.”

Billy shook his head. “You’re a monster.”

“People keep saying that,” Silver said with a touch of irritation. “Yet did I not save this crew? Have I not saved many of you, many times over? Have you not killed? Why is my essential nature a mark of evil, no matter what purpose I put my skills to?”

Billy backed away but Silver somehow reached the door before he did. He could scream for help, but Billy thought of the men Silver had killed while wounded, before darkness fell, before feeding on Billy's blood, and knew he’d only condemn his crewmates to a swift and brutal death.

“You didn’t kill me,” Billy whimpered. “Are you going to now?”

“I don’t always have to kill, though I admit this time more blood would have been beneficial. I like you, Billy. I don’t want you dead.”

“Am I like you now?” It was a horrifying thought and yet…

Silver shook his head. “I would have to feed you my blood, having fed on you,” he said. "You are still human."

“You walk in daylight,” Billy said, still grasping at this new reality.

“What better way to be safe than to let people think we cannot bear the sun? No,” Silver said, “our powers are much diminished but the light of day does not harm us.”

Billy stared at him for a long time. “What’s it like being a vampire?”

“That’s a complicated question.”

“But you can make other people into vampires if they wanted it?”

Silver nodded. “But it is not a decision to take lightly.” He shook his head. “I was not given a choice. If I turn someone, it must be with their full understanding of what it entails.”

“Does Flint know what you are?”

“No. And for now, I would rather he not.”

Billy sat in silence for a moment. Silver tipped his head. “You still have questions.”

Billy swallowed. “What does a vampire want with gold?”

“What does a human want with it?”

It was a fair question.

“I can sometimes make people forget,” Silver said. “Almost always I can compel them to misremember events. I can do that if you want. I should do that.”

Billy frowned. “No. A lot more things make sense now. If you make me forget, next time I discover this, and I’m sure I will, I might try and kill you. Right now I’m thinking how we can use your abilities to our advantage and wondering why you’re not already rich.”

“Believe me it is not through lack of trying,” Silver said. “You can only murder so many rich people for their pocket change however before it becomes problematic. I want more than to survive, hand to mouth.”

“Neck to mouth,” Billy quipped and after a stunned second of realisation, Silver laughed.

*

Flint, ashen-faced, arrived with Miranda Barlow and Abigail Ashe.

Silver knew the moment he laid eyes on the girl that she had been turned. He warned Billy but the man was smitten.

It was three days before Silver got Abigail alone, and then only because she knew he wanted it and met him of her own accord. They strolled along the sands at twilight.

“I was sick,” she said. “My father had me made thus to save me. And now I will remain youthful always, and feast on blood, and never shall I fear violence from any man.”

“You make it sound enticing.” He picked up a stone, skimmed it across the waves.

“And you?”

He shook his head. “I do not like to speak of it. Let me say this. He was cruel and he gave me no choice and at first his violence towards me continued. And ever since I murdered my maker I take pleasure in bringing justice to those hurt as I was hurt.”

Abigail took his arm in hers and they walked in silence for a while.

“I murdered my father,” she said. “For what he has done to James and Miranda, and Thomas. What he was doing to those like them. What he was doing to Nassau. James wants revenge. I want to help him. Will you join me, John Silver? The gold is in the possession of the pirates but it is not enough for them, nor you.”

Silver considered her words, the breeze toying with his hair. “What would you suggest?”

“When was the last time you were in England?”

*

Billy was turned on a full moon aboard the merchant ship bound for England, with his full consent, by the woman he’d quickly fallen for. When he woke after the ritual, Abigail was the first person he saw, and if he'd loved her before, now he adored her utterly, lost in her eyes, enraptured by the blood pounding in her veins.

Silver took a liking to a widow and drank, little and often from her, making the experience a pleasurable one for her, blurring her memories each time. Abigail adopted a steward. Billy found he could survive on Abigail’s blood, so long as she drank enough for the both of them, though he let her teach him how to seduce and send someone on their way with little harm done.

One day Max was cornered by a man with evil on his mind. She stabbed him, and Abigail, closest of the vampires when summoned by Max's shriek, disposed of the body by tossing it overboard as easily as she might have thrown away a rotten apple.

"I have considered it carefully, this vampirism," Max told Silver later, sitting on his lap. "I want it."

"Are you certain?"

“No one will hurt me again,” she said and Silver sank his teeth into her neck in a moment of intimacy and unexpected pleasure as he took her life, pouring it back through her lips, their mixed blood warm and salty on her tongue.

*

They looked the part when they arrived in London, ladies and gentleman of some standing. That Silver had watched Abigail literally tear a man's head from his neck at the docks was by the by. While Silver had felt merely a hint of awe at her swiftness and strength, Billy had been stunned at the sight before pride asserted itself. Max had nudged Silver and asked how long before she was strong enough to do such a thing.

Now Silver took Max’s arm, Billy strolling alongside Abigail, the gas lamps lighting the dark streets.

“I will gather intelligence from the officers and judges,” Abigail said, certain of this, “for the name Ashe will open doors for me and my consort."

"Meanwhile Max and I will confront this Woodes Rogers directly," Silver said, their plans amended after a few hours in a tearoom getting up to speed on current events. We’ll meet back at the hotel by daybreak and plan our next steps accordingly.”

“You’re really going to say Max is your wife? No offence, but,” Billy said, turning from Silver to Max.

“I am,” Silver said firmly, before Billy could say anything further. “The papers in my possession say I am a gentleman of some standing. Gentleman take what they want. I wanted her.”

And woe betide anyone commenting negatively on Max’s appearance.

“Technically she’s also my child,” Silver mused, “as you are Abigail’s.”

“Don’t say that. I hate when you say that. It sounds weird and wrong!”

“I know you hate it,” Silver said, adding with a wink, “that’s why I say it, Billy.”

Abigail sighed. “On your way, Mr Silver,” she said. “We have Nassau to save.”

“My lady.” With a brief bow, Silver led Max away.

Abigail and Billy went on their errand.

England was not prepared for this.

**Author's Note:**

> [tumblr promo post](http://meridianrose.tumblr.com/post/166989269756/blood-and-sails-2614-words-by-meridianrose)


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